Dhofar Classic - Tour Of Salalah 2026

The Classic broke apart on the road inland from the coast. Eduardo Sepulveda (Li Ning Star) attacked the front group and rode away for a lone victory, 35 seconds clear of Nicolas Sessler and 52 seconds up on the day's third rider. Behind, the day settled into a war of attrition on the drag up to Darbat.

Dimas made the second selection and rode home 12th at 3:42 — a strong opener that also seeded his UCI points before the stage race began. Terry closed 22nd at 8:44 in the following group. Yosandy, Dealton and Ilham finished the day inside the second-half chase; Haritz did not finish. The reference numbers for the week were set.

Tour of Salalah Stage 1

Three JPC riders in the top ten on stage one. The winning move rolled clear on the coast road out of Mughsail and stayed away all the way to Mirbat, where Jeroen Meijers (VSC) took the stage. Dimas, Terry and Yosandy were all in the front group, same time as the winner — 5th, 9th and 10th on the day.

JPC finished 4th in the day's team classification. On paper it was an opening stage; in reality it was the moment the team told the peloton that the Indonesian outfit was here to race, not to make up numbers. And it set up the Young Rider battle that would define the rest of the week.

Tour of Salalah Stage 2

Stage 2 — On the Haritz Disqualification · We Own It.

After the Stage 2 finish at Wadi Darbat, Haritz Affan Torisz was involved in a physical altercation with another rider beyond the finish line. The Commissaires' Panel disqualified Haritz from the Tour of Salalah, issued a 100 CHF fine, and removed his 25 UCI points from the event. He did not start Stages 3 or 4.

There is no version of this that we defend. Racing bikes at UCI level carries a standard of conduct that begins at the sign-on and does not end at the line. What happened on Stage 2 fell below that standard. The team apologised to the other rider, to the race organisation, and to the UCI officials on-site, and accepted the sanction without appeal.

Internally, this is being handled through the team's own disciplinary process. Publicly, the only thing we owe is honesty: it happened, it was wrong, and it will not happen again in JPC colours. The rest of this report is about the racing that surrounded it — and about the standard the other five riders held to on the road.

Tour of Salalah Stage 3 · Queen Stage

Echelons at kilometre 9. The crosswind opened the race before it had really started, and Roojai Insurance Winspace put U23 riders into the front split with the stage leaders. That was the trigger — with Dimas in the white jersey, JPC had no choice. The team took full responsibility for the chase.

The gap went out to three minutes. For the rest of the day we buried ourselves into the wind, rotating through, dragging the peloton back toward the leaders. We never fully closed it — the break stayed away to Gravity Hill and Sepulveda took the stage.

But the job that mattered got done: no U23 rival stole time on the road, Dimas came in with the second group at +3:29, and the white jersey stayed on his shoulders into the final day. Hectic, brutal, and worth every watt.

Tour of Salalah Stage 4 · The Podium Sweep

Bunch sprint at Khor Rori. The final stage stayed together across 106 km of coast road and came down to a mass finish. Yosandy Darmawan Oetomo and Terry Yudha Kusuma launched from the front group and came around the field — 2nd and 3rd behind Cameron Scott (Li Ning Star), same time as the winner. A JPC 2–3 podium sweep to close the week.

Dimas finished safely with the bunch, and with that the Overall Young Rider white jersey was locked in. Salalah 2026, done: white jersey, stage podium, team on the road, no gaps in the intent from km 0 of the Dhofar Classic to the line at Khor Rori.

Video — Watch the finish · Khor Rori sprint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xl_AtQCxN6qiXv3nRSv8wbHY5rCirP2F/view?usp=drive_link